Ultrasound. Sound cards Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition and ASUS Xonar DX

Instructions for setting the maximum sound quality on a Creative X-Fi sound card.

2015-08-18T08: 43

2015-0408-18T08: 43

Audiophile "s Software

Note: The information in this article is relevant for the Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI sound card (as well as those similar to XtremeMusic, Fatality, etc.) and Windows Vista to 10 operating systems. Settings are focused on sound playback using a sound output connected to the output. cards. When using interfaces / devices / drivers / programs other than those specified in this article, the setting may not lead to the desired result.

Copyright (C) 2015, Taras Kovrijenko

Full or partial copying of the text is allowed.

1. Introduction

Note: since I would not like to repeat myself, and also so that you do not miss something important, I highly advise you to read this article from beginning to end.

The first thing I want to say is that the sound card is worth its money. Given its capabilities (which many probably don't know about), $ 100 is a very reasonable price. Besides, other manufacturers simply do not have analogues of this card (in terms of multimedia capabilities).

2. Preparing for installation

It means that we have, as they say, "out of the box". This is actually the sound card itself, a bunch of manuals and other waste paper, and two disks: one for Windows XP, the other for Windows Vista. "What about Windows 7 and 8 users?" - you ask. “Take these two disks and put them neatly in the bin,” I will answer. Well, at least put it back in the box with the waste paper and throw it away in the closet. Simply because it won't need anything from that disk. You can, of course, install software from these disks, but the fact is that drivers, for example, will have to be installed for XP, and software for Windows Vista. In this case, you have to go to a number of tweaks (like compatibility modes, etc.). And it's not a fact that in the end all this will work properly. In addition, a lot of unnecessary garbage is installed from the disk.

Therefore, we will go the other way, downloading the latest software versions in one package, already sharpened for the new OS - say thanks to Daniel Kawakami.

3. Installing drivers and utilities

So, how everything should look initially:

Moreover, in the Start-\u003e Programs folder (and in Add / Remove Programs) there should be nothing related to Creative. If this is not the case for you, run Add / Remove Programs and clean. After removing all software from Creative, unpack the Support Pack, go to the \\ Audio \\ Drivers \\ SBXF subfolder and run the Setup.exe file. After selecting everything, as in the screenshot, click ok:

Having got rid of Creative software and got a device without drivers in the manager, we reboot again (just in case).

And now we go directly to the installation. It is advisable to install the following components from the X-Fi Support Pack:

• Audio Drivers - latest versions of sound card drivers;
• Audio Control Panel - provides basic options for setting up a sound card;
• Console Launcher - control center for sound card capabilities;
• Speaker Setup Console (THX) - a utility for calibrating 3D effects in accordance with the position of the listener relative to sound sources;
• Volume Panel - a handy utility that starts automatically and allows you to directly adjust the volume in the tray and launch other utilities from there;
• ALchemy is a utility that restores hardware environment effects in Windows Vista +.

We respond positively to the offer to restart.

If everything went well, after starting the OS, a silvery icon with a volume knob will appear in the tray, and in the start you will see a group of Creative programs:

And, of course, the system at startup should already be making some sounds (if enabled).

4. Configuring Windows Mixer

As I said before, Microsoft has made the sound subsystem much more complex since Windows Vista. At the same time, not only has the functionality expanded, but also some "pitfalls" have appeared.

Well, let's try to get around these stones.

Go to Windows Control Panel-\u003e Hardware and Sound-\u003e Sound. This window will appear:

Disable SPDIF through the context menu (because in some cases this device is capable of switching the reference frequency of the sound card, which is undesirable), in the same way make our device (Creative SB X-Fi Speakers) the default device (if it is not is an). Then double click on the device. Now check that the settings on the tabs match the screenshots:

5. Sound card modes

In order to make the most of the X-Fi DSP resources for a wide variety of tasks, there are three modes:

• Audio Creation Mode - audio creation, and in our case, playback. Since only in this mode accurate sound output is available without unnecessary transformations.


• Entertainment Mode - the mode is mainly designed for reproduction of multichannel audio (including tracks to video films) with the imposition of various effects, channel conversion, etc.


• Game Mode - the name of the mode speaks for itself. Only here you get access to the latest Creative developments in the field of 3D sound for an unsurpassed effect of presence in modern games.

It is convenient to switch modes via the Volume Panel context menu:

The Console Launcher appears when you double-click the Volume Panel icon in the tray.

5.1 Audio Creation and Music Playback

So, turn off all unnecessary:

Now a few words about setting up the foobar2000 player. Due to the unreliability of other interfaces (they really sometimes turn out to be not quite adequate), it is recommended to output sound through ASIO. Fortunately, this card has a full-featured ASIO 2.0 driver. All you need to do is install the foo_out_asio plugin (you can download it from the foobar2000 + plugins page), add an ASIO device in the plugin settings, and select it in the output settings. Pay attention to the channel layout (useful for multi-channel systems).

Now you can enjoy clear sound, not spoiled by all sorts of "enhancers" and other nonsense.

Another nice little thing - the ASIO driver automatically switches the reference frequency of the sound card in accordance with the sampling rate of the audio being played. For example, if you first played a track with a frequency of 44.1 kHz, and then you start a track with a frequency of 96 kHz, the reference frequency will switch, accompanied by a characteristic sound. Some people do not like this, however, this function is a significant advantage, because only if the frequency of the material and the reference frequency of the card coincide, bit-to-bit playback is possible. Besides, now you probably won't need a resampler.

But here it is necessary to make a note - sometimes there are tracks with a sampling frequency different from those supported by the ASIO driver (remember: these are 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 kHz). For such cases, you can add SoX Resampler mod to the DSP chain (which can be downloaded from the same page foobar2000 + plugins). It will resample all frequencies not included in the list of supported ones (we specify them in the resampler settings) to the specified frequency - in order to minimize quality loss, just in case, we will specify 96 kHz:

5.2 Entertainment Mode - Watching Movies

This mode opens up some interesting features of the X-Fi signal processor.

Want to enjoy the 5.1 sound of your favorite movie, but don't have multichannel speakers? No problem! After all, a person has only two ears, which means that with the help of two sound emitters, absolutely any virtual source can be recreated at any point around the listener, so much so that it will be indistinguishable from the real one!

Using special processing algorithms, the X-Fi chip converts multichannel audio to 2.0 for acoustics or headphones (note that the algorithms for creating a surround effect in headphones and speakers are very different).

And now - about how we can take advantage of these opportunities. First of all, let's launch the Console Launcher:

Let's consider the main sections one by one.

In this section you need to choose the configuration of your speaker system, or headphones. Pressing the THX button opens the speaker calibration window. We are interested in the Speaker Position tab. The fact is that when using a two-channel speaker system (which most users have), the position of the listener relative to the sound emitters is far from always the same (worse, sometimes it is unstable, but there is nothing you can do about it). In order for the algorithms for creating the ambience effect to work, they need the correct data about the position of the listener. In this case, you must specify the distance to each sound emitter and the angle of rotation about the central axis. If it's not clear, let me explain: I mean the angle between the two lines:

• a line connecting the listener's head to a dot directly in front of his face.
• the line between his head and the sound emitter

The angle is counted clockwise (viewed from above), the parameter value can take negative values.

So, if you want a 3D effect - hold the ruler in your hands and forward - measure;)

On this tab, you can enable the effect of the environment - amphitheater, concert hall, etc. In the case when selected None, the Enable EAX Effects checkbox does not affect anything, but just in case, leave this option enabled.

This option is responsible for enabling X-Fi CMSS 3D - an algorithm designed to improve the surround effect and positioning accuracy of virtual sources. This function will be useful when playing multichannel audio on 2.0 acoustics or headphones, or vice versa - for the so-called upmix - sound decomposition into several channels (for example, playing stereo recordings on a 5.1 system). If you turn it on when playing, say, stereo material through headphones, there will be little sense from it - except that it will create some effect of virtual sound sources directly in front of the listener, which, for example, does not sound very pleasant to my ears. But in any case, the choice is yours.

The famous (thanks to eloquent marketers from Creative) X-Fi Crystalizer - sometimes it can give expressiveness to the sound, but at the same time it inevitably introduces a significant portion of distortion. It is certainly not recommended for lovers of "honest sound". Although, by ear, it sounds very interesting with the slider set to minimum - distortion in this case is almost invisible, but the effect is pretty good.

Smart Volume Management - to some extent - the same Advanced Limiter in foobar2000, albeit with a larger pre-buffer. Since the data on the DSP output is inevitably converted to a fixed point format, measures must be taken to prevent clipping, which is what Creative's programmers did. When SVM sees an excess of the permissible volume in a fragment of an audio stream, it underestimates its volume. The main disadvantage is compression (the volume balance between audio fragments changes significantly). Although, dynamic range compression is the second purpose of SVM. If, for example, you want to watch a movie at low volume at night (so as not to disturb anyone), but when the volume is lowered, quiet sounds cease to be heard - this is where the compressor will help. It will increase the volume of quiet parts, bringing them to approximately the same level with the rest - and you can adjust the overall volume to the level you need.

But if there is no need for the above, I would advise when turning on the effects (and playing multi-channel sound, including) - set the volume (Master Volume) not to maximum, but about 50% - usually this is enough to avoid distortion.

Here we see a regular 10-band equalizer with an additional level control. If not needed, turn it off.

And this is a sound card mixer. Here you can enable playback from line-in, microphone, etc. Turn off unnecessary sources (since the line input and microphone, for example, can make noise).

With a sound card, that's it. As for the player, there are also some nuances. First, the player should output the sound "AS IS". That is, all software mixers must be turned off so that in the case of 5.1 tracks, for example, all 6 channels are directly transmitted to the sound card. For watching movies, I can recommend the MPC HomeCinema player and ffdshow audio / video filters (included in the Sam CoDec Pack). I would also like to write about their setting in detail, but it will be later in another article. Below I will give the main points of setting up sound output (player and ffdshow filter), and there - I hope you will understand:

5.3 Game mode - surround sound in games.

Creative is without a doubt the leader in 3D audio for gaming. It was Creative programmers who created a set of extensions for DirectSound3D, the so-called. EAX. You can read about this technology in the EAX FAQ and Wikipedia.

The latest EAX version is 5.0, but our card supports all versions up to and including the fifth.

So, let's get started with the setup. Some of the settings sections overlap with the Entertainment mode settings, so we will not review them again.

This tab contains the main settings - speaker configuration (which must be set in accordance with the actual configuration of your speaker), SVM, EAX on / off (meaning only environmental effects - reverberation, etc.). Mic Environment FX is a new feature that lets you apply effects to the microphone sound to match your surroundings in 3D play.

Also, in this mode, speaker position calibration (THX) is extremely important. And I also advise you to pay attention to the Master Volume - in order to avoid distortions, it is advisable to keep this control in the position somewhere around 35-40%.

Of particular interest in this mode are the X-Fi CMSS-3D settings. When this feature is enabled (which is highly recommended for dramatically improving the 3D effect in games), two new extensions are available in EAX 5.0:

• MacroFX - the effect significantly increases the realism of sound sources located in the immediate vicinity of the ear.


• Elevation Filter - the effect significantly improves the positioning of sources along the vertical axis (above / below the listener).

Parameter value On means to force the effect on for all sound sources (for which the effect is intended). By clicking on the Test button, you can run a small test of the environment effects.

Well, we're done with setting up the sound card. Remaining software setting. As I already wrote, unfortunately in Windows 7 programs do not have direct access to the hardware resources of the sound card through the DirectSound3D API. OpenAL is the only API that has access to hardware 3D sound. So, without hesitation, Creative started developing the Alchemy utility that converts DirectSound / EAX calls to OpenAL. I'll tell you about its setting now.

So, if you followed all the instructions exactly from the beginning of the article, you should already have Creative ALchemy 1.43.06 beta installed. No wonder I chose this version, because in some incomprehensible way the latest release version does not quite honestly fulfill its functions - it is obvious that EAX with its use is software, plus the MacroFX and Elevation Filter effects do not work.

So, on the left we see a list of installed games that were detected automatically. By moving the game to the right list, we automatically enable the Alchemy functionality for it.

You can also add games manually. Let's take this opportunity. Install the RightMark 3DSound program and add the folder address with the executable file of the RightMark 3DSound Positioning Accuracy test (RightMark3DSound.exe) utility to the Creative Alchemy list:

Let's move the added program to the right list. Now the program can be started.

The screenshot shows how you can recreate a sound source located behind an obstacle, behind, to the right of the listener.

This program is a great opportunity to try out MacroFX and Elevation filter technologies. Turning these effects on and off, try to first bring the sound source in the program closer to the listener's ear, and then move it down and up along the vertical axis - you will feel the difference!

And do not be confused that the program does not include EAX 5.0 - most of the effects of this version are automatically applied to all sound sources, regardless of the version of EAX supported by the program / game.

Games are configured according to the same principle - the main thing is to add the address of the folder with the executable file of the game to Alchemy. If the game has the appropriate settings, they need to enable EAX support. If there is no such option, there is an alternative: enable multichannel sound in the game. At the same time, it will be converted to stereo by the sound card and you will get excellent positioning of sounds.

If you want to fully experience all the effects of EAX 5.0, I can recommend S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat. This game uses the OpenAL sound engine, which gives it direct access to all EAX effects (no need to use Alchemy) - you just need to enable EAX support in the game settings and select the SB X-Fi Audio device.

6. Epilogue

That's all I wanted to tell you about the X-Fi XtremeGamer setup. I hope the information in this article was useful for you and now you can unleash the full potential of your sound card. Happy listening!

Any more or less large-budget game imposes certain requirements on the player's technique - so that the processor is more powerful, the monitor is bigger, and the acoustics are of better quality. A decent sound card is also vital. The sound codecs built into motherboards, of course, do their job, but you shouldn't expect much from them.

With sound cards as separate boards, everything is dull. FROM EAX 5.0 only series cards work X-Fi from Creative, the rest can only access the outdated specification EAX 2.0... As you can see, there are no or almost no alternatives to Creative products.

For some time now entered the market of sound cards ASUS... Not so long ago she introduced a sound card Xonar DX - with a new PCIe x1 interface, better components and support for all EAX effects. With all this, the novelty is not more expensive X-Fi Xtreme Gamer.

We thoroughly tested the Xonar DX and compared it to. It costs significantly more than the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer, but only due to the presence of an external unit with connectors and a remote control in the delivery set, so everything is fair.

Round 1: an inside look

By 2005, Creative lost the budget sound card market to built-in codecs. We had to come to terms with this, and as a result, the company switched to more expensive solutions. As a result of such a change in course, the X-Fi (Xtreme Fidelity) chip saw the light, it surpassed in power Audigy 24 times.

X-Fi has tremendous possibilities: four cores work with sound at once, they calculate flows in parallel; the number of effects and methods of processing the audio stream is more than enough; while the processor power allows you to do all this in real time. Especially in Creative, they are proud of the X-Fi architecture - before, the sound was passed through a rigidly defined chain of effects, with the advent of technology Audio Ring it is sent to the bus to which only the necessary modules are connected. This approach not only relieves the processor, but also allows you to get rid of unnecessary effects.

Alas, it was not without a fly in the ointment: the sound cards of the X-Fi series use outdated chips for outputting and capturing sound, nothing has changed since the days of the Audigy. A DAC (digital-to-analog converter) is responsible for sound output Cirrus Logic CS4382, which can work with acoustics of class 5.1, but is limited to a low sampling rate (96 kHz) when using multichannel audio, and the signal-to-noise ratio is too low. The same goes for the ADC (analog to digital converter). To ensure high quality recording, Wolfson WM8775SEDS too low indicators. Whatever one may say, but today the X-Fi line does not look so attractive.

ASUS Xonar DX is another matter. This board does not have a revolutionary processor, a solid chip from C-Mediaand the chip Oxygen HD CMI8788 It cannot boast of anything special - its sound passes through a classic rigid chain of effects, delays during processing in real time are relatively high. But high-quality ADC and DAC are attached to all this. Two chips are responsible for sound output at once: two-channel Cirrus Logic CS4398 and six-channel Cirrus Logic CS4362A... Together they can work with eight-channel acoustics and are a cut above the solutions from Creative in quality. It is worth recording Cirrus Logic CS5361which has a much wider range and significantly less noise compared to Wolfson.

The X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition board looks solid: black textolite and a glowing red logo will look good in a transparent case. The card has been assembled conscientiously, the main processor is covered with a radiator. There are enough connectors on the card: there is an AUX In input for a TV tuner and an additional 4-pin power supply (the card works without it), in the center there is a connector for computer power management, for turning on from the remote control, in addition, there are two outputs for connecting external panels from X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition and Elite Pro, but there are no standard audio connectors on the case. The I / O panel includes a game port, three speaker outputs and one Flexi Jack combining digital output and microphone input. The card is connected via a PCI interface.

The Xonar DX is very different from the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition. The board is half the size of the competitor, connects via PCIe x1 and is compatible with low-profile cases (a special bracket is included in the package). The downside is that the chips are located on both sides of the board, which is quite expected given the limited space. The Xonar DX has slightly more connectors: there is AUX In, S / PDIF In and an output to the front panel, on the input-output panel there are four outputs for acoustics and Flexi Jack.

The minus of both cards is that the connectors for the cables are too close, it will be difficult to connect expensive wires with thick insulation. In addition, the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition and Xonar DX are equally poor: only CDs with drivers and instructions. ASUS has only added a low-profile bracket, which we mentioned, and an S / PDIF adapter.

Round 2: endless possibilities

Connecting X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition begins with installing drivers and an impressive set of software. It is nowhere easier to make settings, the programs are all clear and reasonably convenient. It is enough to select the mode of operation of the card (games, recording, entertainment), after which the necessary functional modules are connected.

During the installation process, so many different programs are prescribed on a computer that a separate article could be devoted to them. Let's talk about the most important ones. You have to manage the map through Creative Console... The usual mixer and equalizer are available, but there are also much more interesting tabs - for example, 24-bit Crystallizer and CMSS-3D.

Let's start with the first one. The X-Fi processor is designed to work with 24-bit audio. This is all good, but in practice no one needs it, because music is written using a 16-bit stream. To justify itself, Creative just came up with the 24-bit Crystallizer technology, which artificially expands and amplifies the frequency range, the level is set as a percentage. The idea is not new, many sound editors can do this. One way or another, after such processing, the bass is amplified, the highs become sharper, and the mids are denser. When listening to music, at first it seems that the sound really improves and becomes more assertive, but a little later you notice that the sound is blurred. The basses turn into a puffing mess, only the loudest tones stand out from the top, the voice fades into the background against the background of the music.

The second technology turned out to be more viable. CMSS-3D is an algorithm that produces surround sound from a normal stereo track. When you turn it on, familiar songs are transformed, there is a complete feeling that you are in the very center of what is happening: either a guitar will sound somewhere behind, or a drummer will play from the side. Another plus of CMSS-3D is the ability to turn headphones into 7.1 acoustics.

A few words about cinema: technology Dolby and DTS are fully supported only under Windows XP. Everything there works at the hardware level and does not load the processor. But drivers for Windows Vista will appear only at the end of summer (the developers are somehow in no hurry). Creative also offers its own music player, media file organizer and even a karaoke function.

ASUS doesn't have such a variety of technologies and software, but maybe it's for the better. All settings are collected in one window, where you have to choose the mode of operation of the card - music, movies, games. ASUS did not reinvent the wheel and took advantage of the developments Dolby Laboratories, a recognized leader in the field of sound. I would especially like to highlight the algorithm for obtaining surround sound: if Creative's CMSS-3D is impressive, then the work of Xonar DX, coupled with Dolby ProLogic literally blows down the tower. At the first acquaintance with this technology, there is a strong desire to listen to the entire music collection. Technology performed just as well Dolby Headphone, she easily tucked in the Creative X-Fi belt. And here's why: if CMSS-3D overloads the headphones with low frequencies, then the ASUS sound is light, airy.

Another trump card of the Xonar DX is that the board is excellent at positioning the sound and masterfully moving it away. In terms of sound quality, the ASUS card turned out to be cleaner than the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition, this is especially noticeable when connecting multichannel speakers - honest 192 kHz make itself felt, and the noise is much less. The beginner is inferior only in terms of the output signal power, headphones with an impedance of 64 ohms can hardly be swung, an amplifier is needed.

Round 3: how does it work?

When both cards are put into game mode, EAX settings, voice control appear, Creative disables 24-bit Crystallizer and equalizer, and Xonar DX activates the DirectSound 3d GX 2.0 (more on her later).

Before the tests, let's explain why Creative has long been considered the only manufacturer of sound cards aimed at gamers. The sound in games remained in the background for a long time: the steps of the characters sounded the same both on the grass and on the asphalt, no changes were felt when moving from one room to another, the distance to the character could only be judged by the picture on the monitor. Technologies like Microsoft DirectSound and Aureal 3d only supported the reverb effect and a very small number of sound sources.

In order to spur interest in their cards, Creative has developed EAX technology. It allowed not only to change the sound depending on the conditions in the game, but also to calculate the distance to the sources. For the first time EAX support appeared in 1999 in the cards of the series Sound Blaster Live! - then the technology allowed processing up to 32 sources, was able to independently process the effects, thereby significantly relieving the CPU. By the time X-Fi was released, the technology had grown to version 5.0. A powerful processor was taught to work with 128 sound sources, take into account the surface of the floor, walls, ceiling, smoothly change the sound when moving from one location to another, handle the obstacles encountered, and for complete happiness added an impressive number of new effects.

On the way to popularizing EAX, one problem arose - one card is not enough to support the technology, games must be sharpened using EAX, and this is an additional cost. Over the past three years, a little over twenty games have appeared that are compatible with EAX 5.0 - not at all. But Creative was not upset, they are still convinced that it is impossible to play without EAX. There is some truth in this, but EAX is not a panacea, in the same Call of duty 4 dispensed with this technology, and the sound is still great. And then Windows Vista came out, in which they got rid of support for hardware sound completely, it can be implemented only through the software interface OpenAL... This move by Microsoft has significantly shaken Creative's position in the market.

In general, Creative's policy in relation to EAX is quite strict; the company, in principle, does not license older versions of the standard to third-party hardware developers. There is no trial either, and ASUS chose a different path: it is clear that the processor from C-Media is not powerful enough to process EAX 5.0 instructions, but the computer's central processor copes with this task perfectly. And here they are absolutely right - modern CPUs are powerful enough, have two, three or even four cores, which are just waiting to be loaded with something. The EAX support scheme is as follows: as soon as we launch the game, DirectSound 3D GX2.0 intercepts EAX commands, sending them for processing to the CPU, after which the calculated sound goes to the card and acoustics. Nobody talks about full support for EAX 5.0, but work with 128 sound sources and basic effects are guaranteed. The solution is not the most transparent, but it works.

Round 4: final battle

To test the sound in games, we assembled a computer based on Core 2 Duo E6300 with a frequency of 1.8 GHz, installed two 512 MB memory sticks and limited to a video card GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB. The shock lineup of games was Unreal Tournament 3, Call of duty 4 and BioShock... The main thing we were interested in was how well the Xonar DX will work with EAX and whether there will be a noticeable difference compared to the X-Fi. In order not to miss anything important, the sound of each pass of the level was recorded and compared.

First in line was BioShock. The game supports EAX 5.0 and features a variety of environments with challenging environments. The first launch took place on the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition card. To heighten the effect, we first passed the level without EAX support, after which we turned it on. The difference amazed us. The sound changes dramatically. If without EAX everything goes in a common flow, then when processing is turned on, the transitions from one surface to another are perfectly traced, the volume of the premises is felt - for example, in large rooms, steps sound more resonant than in small ones. In rooms with carpets, sounds seem to drown, while in empty rooms, on the contrary, they are amplified. It is clearly audible whether the enemy is in the same room as you or not, the distance to the sound source is easily determined. But the CMSS-3D technology clearly fails - it is impossible to understand where the source is in the headphones.

Moving on to the Xonar DX. First of all, we checked the settings, EAX was still available. The sound from the ASUS card turned out to be completely different. While a competitor from the Creative camp crushes with bass, the Xonar DX clearly distinguishes every echo. I was especially pleased with the Dolby Headphone technology - it is clearly superior to CMSS-3D. Now about EAX-effects: there is a difference by ear. Xonar DX works with some lag, the sound passing through the wall is not audible so clearly, the transitions from one room to another are sharper, the water splash calculation is slightly different. Overall impression: we cannot say that the sound of the Xonar DX is worse, it is just different.

Unreal Tournament 3 interacts with EAX much more intensely than BioShock. The results of both cards in it were approximately the same. In large spaces, when playing with headphones, Xonar DX took the lead - thanks to more competent positioning.

We left Call of Duty 4 for dessert: there is no EAX support, so both opponents fought on equal terms. The sound in the game often loses its dynamics and is replete with high frequencies. By boosting the bass and 24-bit Crystallizer, the X-Fi Fatal1ty Edition delivers a dense, live sound that's much more like what you can hear in a movie theater. The Xonar DX simply did not have the necessary filters to tighten the sound, and besides, Dolby Headphone, the main trump card of this card, refused to work in the game.

Let's draw the line

ASUS has got an excellent card, it not only does not yield to Creative products in sound, but often even surpasses it. When working with music or films, high-quality technologies from Dolby are used, which easily plug all Creative developments into the belt. Most importantly, the Xonar DX really does work with EAX 5.0. Not as flawless as Creative's own cards, but in the heat of battle, you can hardly tell the difference.

The Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty has a processor that the Xonar DX has yet to grow and grow. But everything else is hopelessly outdated in three years. What looked impressive recently is now becoming history. Older ADCs / DACs are inferior to the Xonar DX in all respects.

Creative has a lot of software, but it's often useless and unstable. Over the course of the tests, we got one full Windows crash and several blue screens. In addition, X-Fi boards do not have an output to a standard soundbar on the case, there is only support for expensive branded expansion panels.

The situation with recording is much more complicated. Creative has advanced software and full ASIO support. The X-Fi processor provides low latency in real-time audio processing, and external panels with a large number of connectors make it easy to connect microphones and musical instruments. You can work with several channels at once - record voice and instrument simultaneously. But the limitation of 96 kHz interferes. Xonar DX allows you to make better recordings, but you can forget about working with sound in real time.

Each sound card has its own pros and cons. If you already have an X-Fi series card installed, then you should only change it to Xonar DX if you decide to buy high-quality acoustics. But if until now you have gotten by with built-in sound and you do not need to record music, then the Xonar DX will be an excellent choice.

Two USB sound cards with quality DACs

In today's article, we compare two interesting sound cards with each other: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD vs. Asus Xonar U7. These are two similar products in terms of price and capabilities, in which the emphasis was placed on high-quality converters. At the same time, both cards at the time of this writing were on sale at a very low price, a little over 3 thousand rubles.

In the forum, the Asus Xonar U7 was dubbed "the best choice" in absentia, based on a review of photos and specifications. Many people completely in vain forget about the need for direct comparison of devices by sound. Most are also unable to correctly interpret the measurement results.

Name

• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD
• Asus Xonar U7

The Creative card has a confusing name as it is not related to the X-Fi cards and has nothing to do with the Titanium HD card. As a result, the release of the card went unnoticed. This product is not known to anyone at all, except for some computer sound enthusiasts.

The Asus Xonar U7 also has an obscure name. The fairly old U1 and U3 cards are budget products with integrated audio quality. The U7 has nothing to do with past products in this series.

Price

• Creative: 3700 RUB
• Asus: RUB 3100

The cards cost almost the same, the difference in absolute values \u200b\u200bin price is not serious. More importantly, such an affordable price makes them interesting to a large circle of buyers. They have practically no competitors among USB-cards!

At the same time, the Asus card appeared quite recently. The manufacturer also reports that the Asus Xonar U7 Echelon Edition will soon appear with an army camouflage paintwork and more functional drivers.

The target audience

• Creative: mass, audiophile
• Asus:mass, home theater

The Creative model is a card with full-size TRS headphone and microphone jacks. Interestingly, there is a phono input for digitizing vinyl, with ground. It also works in the normal line-in mode. THX and other proprietary processing is software only. For movies, there is an optical digital output for connecting a 5.1 receiver with a decoder.

7.1 speakers can be connected to the Asus card by analogy, minijack connectors. The emphasis is on Dolby software included. Digital output - combined, optical / coaxial. Both cards have a line-in, but in the case of Asus, the line-in is combined with the microphone, which is quite difficult to guess.

It remains a mystery why it was necessary to load both cards with so many functions and software in addition to the high-quality output. This inevitably blurs the audience and distracts from the main advantage of the cards, namely high-quality DAC... All the rest of the dregs are in abundance in almost any sound card. In the description of sound cards and in the design of the boxes, as they say, “you can't see the forest for the trees”. It is not clear who will organize a 7.1 cinema around a computer or laptop - this is inconvenient and in practice not in demand. Fortunately, the user does not overpay for all these additional functions, since the price of the cards is very low.

Volume knob

• Creative: Miniature metal volume knob with original location. There is a Mute function when you press the knob. It is not very convenient to use the pen, as it is located very close to the table surface: the fingers are in a very unusual position and slip on the surface.
• Asus: The smooth handle is recessed into the body. Pressing the knob turns off the speakers in favor of the headphones and vice versa. It is inconvenient to use: considerable effort is required, otherwise the finger will slip. The notch for the finger is made for beauty - it is much easier to adjust it by pressing your finger where there is no notch.

In both cases, a flawless digital regulator is used. The ergonomics of the regulators are rather arbitrary. Due to the combination of the functions of the regulator and the button, the Asus regulator has a rather noticeable backlash. Many users would prefer to remove the button without any backlash. Also Asus' recessed knob is handy for carrying around the audio interface. In all other cases, this decision looks controversial.

Illuminations

• Creative: blue LED on top
• Asus: 3 signal LEDs on the top panel

The activity light on the Creative card is brighter. In principle, this will not be a problem for most. But we had a keen desire to seal it with electrical tape so that it would not be an eyesore and would not be constantly visible with peripheral vision.

Headphone out location

• Creative: in front
• Asus:in front

Both cards have convenient connectors.

Filling

• Creative: DSP Creative CA0189-2AG, 2-channel DAC AKM AK4396 (123 dB), 2-channel ADC CS5361 (114 dB).
• Asus: DSP CM6632A, 2-channel DAC Cirrus Logic CS4398 (120 dB), 6-channel DAC Cirrus Logic CS4362A (114 dB), 2-channel ADC CS5361 (114 dB).

The filling of both cards is quite interesting. And this is the main feature of the cards, against the background of which no one is interested in everything else. The Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC is considered a class higher than the AKM AK4396.

All Creative USB sound cards use a CA0189-2AG RISC processor of its own production with a frequency of 100 MHz. Unlike the usual Creative DSPs, this chip does not have hardware audio processing. Its purpose is a fast USB 2.0 controller and a multichannel interface to full-fledged I²S / I²C converter chips such as those used by Cirrus Logic and AKM. Two quartz oscillators are soldered on the board.

Asus has an interesting CM6632A chip that supports both HDA codecs and I²S / I²C converters. Number of channels - 8 + 2 (analog + digital) output and 2 + 2 input. There is support for 192 kHz. The chip can be clocked at once from three generators, 12, 24.5 and 22.5 MHz, which was used by the creators of the card. The decision to throw pasta from one edge of the board with the DAC to the other with connectors remains unclear.

All processing in both cards is performed exclusively at the software level. The maximum data rate of 96 kHz is not a big problem as 192 kHz content is practically non-existent. Hi-Res did not give anything to ordinary users and did not go to the masses, and aesthetes and lovers of Hi-End sound cards for $ 100 are unlikely to be interested.

Auto switch to headphones

• Creative: there is
• Asus:there is

When plugged into the headphone jack, the speakers are disabled. This feature was first implemented in integrated audio as part of the AC'97 and HDA standards. First, the determination of the connected headphones was carried out by impedance, and then by a mechanical sensor. External cards with good converters are not inferior to integrated sound in this matter. In practice, however, this can cause problems.

Complete software

• Creative: a set of software on the disk, driver update on the manufacturer's website
• Asus: the same installation kit on CD and on the manufacturer's website

The software disc is the same as all other Creative products.

The appearance and content of the Entertainment Console of the X-Fi card have already been described more than once in our materials. The Audio Control Panel is included in the package immediately and allows you to control absolutely all settings without the nooks and crannies of the graphical menu, except for the equalizer. Creative Volume Panel - it is not clear why the necessary program is supplied for the assortment. An important difference between drivers for XP: they provide a choice of frequency and bit depth directly from the Entertainment Console. The frequency is limited to choose: 48 or 96 kHz, regardless of the OS. This choice is typical of all Creative USB sticks.

The Asus card panel is very odd. Parameters can be selected only through the context menu by right-clicking!

There is an interesting parameter for setting the headphone output volume limit.

In the jungle of settings Asus has a separate option - Dolby Home Theater v4, which seems to have surpassed the Creative card in terms of the number of enhancers.

44 kHz support

• Creative: no
• Asus:there is

The Creative card contains two crystal oscillators and also has 44 kHz DSP support. However, drivers neither for Windows XP nor for Windows 7/8 support operation in 44 kHz mode: only 48 kHz or 96 kHz can be set in the device settings. In the card for audiophiles, this indicates either inadequacy or complete incompetence of the developers. To listen to music in 99.9% of cases, 44 kHz is used. We are looking forward to the comments of the map developers themselves.

The Asus card has support for all frequencies: 44, 48, 88, 96, 192 kHz.

ASIO driver availability

• Creative: no
• Asus:there is

The lack of an ASIO driver for Creative cards is beyond our grasp. The best listening option for the Creative card is the WASAPI interface and software resampling in the player. Conversion from 44 kHz to 48 or 96 will always force the Windows sound engine, or you need to select on-the-fly conversion in the media player. For example, in the player foobar 2000:

Sound in speakers

Listening was carried out on active monitors Adam S2.5A and Adam ARTist 5. For comparison, we used the very famous sound cards E-MU 1616M (CS4398) and E-MU 0204 USB (AK4396).

First surprise: all cards play completely differently! In the first place in terms of sound quality is the E-MU 1616M card, the second - the E-MU 0204 USB, the third - the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD, and the fourth - the Asus Xonar U7.

The sound of the Asus card is the least like the E-MU 1616M (despite the same DAC installed). This is due to Asus's distortion problems, as we reliably know about the 1616M's unsurpassed analog output implementation. This is a measurable 120 dB S / N, a measurable 0.0003% distortion, and a wonderful clear sound experience. The 1616M is not much inferior in sound to the best implementations of rack-mounted studio devices, it is comparable to Pro Tools HD and Lynx Aurora, so we boldly choose the 1616M sound as a reference for devices under $ 150. E-MU 0204 USB is inferior quite a bit. X-Fi HD sounds brighter and more emphasized on the treble, therefore, for all its effectiveness, it is slightly farther from the original sound. The Xonar U7 disappointed us very much with its meager HF and rather sluggish sound. Perhaps this problem is solved by flashing or drivers; we will definitely clarify this issue with the manufacturer. In any case, there should be no distortion of 0.01%. Both the digital and analog parts of the card can do more.

Let's scold Creative for the lack of a 44 kHz mode. It's just inexplicable, nonsense! How can you make an audiophile card, put two crystal oscillators and prohibit it from working at 44 kHz? Don't provide the user with an ASIO driver that bypasses Windows? This is just the wildest incompetence of the developers. The E-MU 0204 USB - device for the same money - has no such problems! The feeling that one division of Creative is mercilessly competing with another: stubbornly developing a bicycle with square wheels, when a racing sports car has long been developed and tested in the next room.

Headphone sound

We used Sennheiser HD600 high impedance headphones (300 ohms) and Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro (250 ohms).

The volume is sufficient in both cases, but the Asus card has practically no headroom. Creative was able to surprise us once again. In terms of sound quality, the places were distributed as follows: E-MU 1616M ranked first, Sound Blaster X-Fi HD ranked second, E-MU 0204 USB ranked third, and Asus Xonar U7 ranked fourth. The professional E-MU 0204 USB interface, in principle, performed well, but X-Fi HD looked like a clear favorite against its background and had a significantly larger volume margin. The Asus Xonar U7 card is the quietest, but its volume rises sharply when processing is enabled. Perhaps this was done on purpose, so that there was a so-called headroom for Dolby technologies and other auto-equalizers. Thus, the Asus card is the least suitable for simple listening to music, the emphasis in it is placed on the effective processing. The screeching and hooting of the fans of the map remain completely incomprehensible to us.

Measurements in RMAA

Tests at the RMAA were rated Excellent. This means that the devices have no frank jambs. It doesn't mean anything else. (But as soon as artificial intelligence makes it unnecessary to analyze measurements by humans, we will be the first to tell you about it!)

Both cards have been tested through their own path as they have the same high quality CS5361 ADC.

Asus is slightly better in noise, Creative is better in distortion. We were concerned about the look of the Asus graph in the floating tone intermodulation test: usually anomalies in this test indicate frequency scaling or some other digital processing. We have checked all the settings several times. Results do not change. We ran additional tests with Windows XP and Windows 7 cleanly installed. The latest drivers and firmware were used. The bottom line is the same: the Asus card has about 10 times more distortion at high frequencies.

new generation of Xtreme Fidelity processors and sound cards

What is Xtreme Fidelity?

On August 2, 2005 the Creative company held a conference in Germany, where the new generation sound cards - SoundBlaster X-Fi were demonstrated to the European press.

Earlier, on May 13, 2005, Creative announced the Xtreme Fidelity technology, or X-Fi for short, and the sound processor of the same name.

If it is more or less clear with the new processor, then what is “Xtreme Fidelity technology”? According to the manufacturer, its essence lies in providing 24-bit quality, clarity of sound with at least 110 dB signal-to-noise ratio and new technology CMSS (Creative Multi Speaker Surround) 3D sound in headphones and multichannel speakers. As stated by Sim Wong Hu, founder and CEO of Creative - "Xtreme Fidelity is the result of our vision for a new audio standard that will bring dramatic improvements to MP3 playback, PC gameplay, and digital movies, thus laying the foundation for a whole new digital home entertainment platform.".

When it comes to Xtreme Fidelity, the manufacturer focuses on two new technologies: 24-bit Crystalizer and CMSS-3D. As conceived by Creative, technologies are designed to remaster, enhance and remix in real time existing conventional and compressed 16-bit stereo material in 24-bit quality, with multichannel sound in speakers of any configuration, as well as in headphones.

To enable the new standard, Creative creates the X-Fi processor under the motto "Xtreme Audio Needs An Xtreme Fidelity Processor!" ("Exceptional sound requires a top quality processor").

Retrospective

Previous sound cards, starting with Live! sample of 1998, based on modifications of the EMU10K processor. This processor was developed primarily for use in synthesizers and modules produced by E-MU as a hardware MIDI synthesizer with an integrated effect processor. At a time when the main requirement for a sound card was the presence of hardware MIDI with the largest possible memory bank, wide capabilities and high-quality effects, the EMU10K was a progressive chip. However, at present, as everyone understands, it is outdated. Despite 32-bit audio processing, programmable high-quality professional effects, support for 8 digital I2S or SPDIF interfaces, the drawbacks (the main one being the rigid architecture) nullified everything.

Since the development of the EMU10K, the interests of sound card users have changed significantly. In fact, the audience was divided into three camps: 1) office and other users who are satisfied with even integrated sound; 2) gamers who are not particularly interested in quality, who do not mind good 3D sound in games, if this does not come at the expense of performance; 3) music lovers and audiophiles who use a computer for a convenient music library - they need a card exclusively for high-quality music playback.

However, lovers of high-quality sound expressed distrust of Creative's products, even despite the high-quality Cirrus Logic I2S DACs installed in the latest models. The main "horror story" destroying the image of Live / Audigy sound cards for many years was the presence non-disconnectable mediocre hardware resampling of all frequencies into a 48 kHz reference. To obtain high-quality reproduction of the 44.1 kHz format, in which most recordings exist, card users began to install in droves DirectSound or ASIO plug-ins for software sample rate convertion (SSRC) for the popular mp3 players Winamp and Foobar.

SRC Audigy vs. SSRC Winamp

Starting with Audigy2, the developers introduced the P16V block into the chip, which allows the cards to directly play 96 and 192 kHz frequencies for DVD-Audio playback. But this mode turned out to be available only for these frequencies and only through the DirectSound interface. The effect processor operating at 48 kHz, in this case, had to be turned off. Otherwise, oversampling comes into play again.

In the low-end below, Creative begins to catastrophically lose the market for sound cards due to the expansion of AC "97 and HDA codecs, forcibly installed on motherboards. This greatly reduces the incentive for users to spend money on a separate sound card. In addition, the onset of the Internet and file-sharing networks makes the computer a tool accumulation of a collection of files in compressed formats So for high-quality listening to music, many prefer semi-professional cards based on Envy24, with a minimum of hardware capabilities, but with a choice of a fixed sampling rate, honest 44.1 kHz in digital and a minimum of unnecessary bells and whistles.

Obviously, Creative needed a new processor that was free of the shortcomings of the old one. X-Fi has been in development for the past 5 years. Since the release of the first Audigy model, work has begun on a new generation processor. Place of development - Creative Advanced Technology Center, Silicon Valley, California.

X-Fi architecture

According to the manufacturer, the new Xtreme Fidelity processor has over 51 million transistors and a performance of more than 10,000 MIPS (million instructions per second). X-Fi is also 24 times more powerful than its predecessor.

The heart of the processor is the DSP "Quartet", since there are 4 subprocessors working in parallel. The architecture is called TIMD (Thread Interleaved Multiple Data). To achieve parallelism, a processor architecture with very long command words ( Very Large Instruction Word, VLIW).

In such a command, several ordinary commands are combined, which are executed simultaneously (in parallel) by different functional blocks of the processor to increase its performance. The increase in performance is achieved due to the fact that the processor does not need to spend time organizing parallelism at the instruction level. The grouping of concurrently executed operations is performed by the compiler.)

Each subprocessor has a 2xSIMD architecture. 2x comes from the fact that usually the subprocessor operates with two data streams - stereo data, complex numbers. By the way, the data type is both floating point and fixed. The set of instructions consists of 235 codes of operations, and about 60 specialized instructions, often found in algorithms of frequency processing of sound, for example, complex multiplication of data from two streams, decimal logarithm, exponent.

The internal frequency of the processor is 400 MHz. Supports external clock for S / PDIF and I2S. The value of the jitter of the PLL (PLL) of the processor is given Sound processing algorithms (reverb, equalizer, 3D sound simulation effects) use 512 IIR filters ( IIR, infinite impulse response \u003d IIR, infinite impulse response) second order. This will not surprise anyone in modern sound processing tools, but it should be noted that everything here works in real time for dozens of streams simultaneously. Hardware filters, including 4 and 5 band parametric equalizers, band pass, notch and other specific filters.

There are also rich mixing capabilities - up to 4096 signals with hardware volume control and combining two sources. This can be used both for building a mixer that is flexibly configurable in terms of signal routing, and also used in games, since it requires adjusting the level of each applied effect.

To connect to digital and analog interfaces, the processor has 4 I2S input / output buses, providing 8 input and 8 output channels. In addition, there is a proprietary protocol for transmitting 8 channels over a single wire, so 32 x 48 kHz, 16 x 96 kHz, 8 x 192 kHz channels are obtained. For internal needs and routing, there are 4096 audio and 4096 parametric channels.

SRC

Sample Rate Converters (SRC) are used when the sample rate does not match the reference rate of the current mode (otherwise the sample will be played at the wrong rate and change the tone). Uses 256 interpolators, with better quality than a typical 100th order polyphase FIR filter (FIR, finite impulse response \u003d FIR, finite impulse response)... The pitch shift range is from 0 to 8.

How SRC X-Fi works

The picture illustrates how SRC X-Fi converts 44.1 kHz to 48 kHz. First, the signal samples are doubled to 88.2 kHz. The polyphase FIR filter converts the signal up to 192 kHz with a factor equal to twice the 48 / 44.1 ratio. In the final stage, the frequency is reduced to 48 kHz. Such a scheme is more efficient from the point of view of computational costs and gives a better result, since at the last stage aliasing is not formed due to multiple frequencies.

When converting a 997 Hz standard tone from 44.1 kHz to 48 kHz, the standard parameter for noise and distortion power, THD + N is -136 dB, frequency jitter in the passband is ± 0.00025 dB. Creative recommends checking these parameters using at least the AudioPrecision measuring station.

Taking into account the headroom of 6 dB and 32 stages of the processing cycle, THD + N can deteriorate to –124 dB, and the frequency response unevenness will increase to ± 0.01 dB. But the parameters of even the best DACs for today are inferior to such indicators in noise and distortion.

SRC X-Fi quality when converting 44.1-\u003e 48 kHz

It should only be taken into account that the quality parameters in the frequency domain do not indicate the operation of the filters in the time domain. But, given the positioning of the cards primarily for games and movies, this conversion accuracy can be considered excellent. In past products, the intermodulation distortion from SRC reached 0.1% in the high-frequency region, while only a few users complained about the drop in quality.

There is a very important point, which is not widely advertised by the manufacturer - unlike the sound processors of the previous generation, in X-Fi, you can turn off oversampling along with other DSP effects! This, of course, loses the unique opportunity to simultaneously listen to several signals of different sampling rates, with the subsequent imposition of all sorts of effects and enhancers. However, fans of the highest quality sound need this least of all.

SRC converters also operate in DMA mode, allowing conversions to be performed directly in the computer's RAM without the need for the CPU. To avoid collisions when the PCI bus is loaded, there is a configurable cache.

X-Fi capabilities

Data processing for human head-to-ear transfer functions (HRTF) and headphone sound calculation is based on several technologies. These are the developments of UCDavis, Aureal and Sensaura. Used patents for MacroFX, binaural 3D panning. The implementation uses 48-tap FIR (FIR) filters, up to 128 3D sound sources are processed.

CMSS (Creative Multi Speaker Surround) technology has been updated to CMSS-3D. The manufacturer claims that the quality of the sound field is higher than that of Dolby Prologic II / IIx, and in the headphones, the spatiality and naturalness of tones at the HF surpasses Dolby Headphone.

Unlike previous generations of processors, effects are now supported for 24/96 and 24/192 modes. For processing signals of higher resolution, for example, 192 kHz, the Quadrature Mirror Filter technology is used - splitting the signal into 4 frequency bands of 48 kHz, which are processed separately, and the results are added. Thus, 192 kHz processing increases the computation speed compared to conventional methods.

The architecture of the chip allows switching between modes without rebooting, so that sound cards can make the most of the resources.

ASIO 2.0 with latency time is supported For WDM and OpenAL optimizations of drivers and hardware were carried out to obtain the lowest latency, with higher sound quality.

Comparison

The table shows approximate performance ratios between different generations of Creative cards (according to the manufacturer's data).

X-Fi has an architecture that is completely different from that of previous generations of Creative processors, as well as all other processors, including graphics. The concept is a programmable ring-based architecture. This gives flexibility in signal routing, allowing any of the 4096 audio channels to route the signal to any processor element - Tank, SRC, Mixer, DSP.

Thus, the new X-Fi architecture consists of the following major innovations:

• Ring architecture
• New DSP "Quartet"
• Ultra-quality SRC
• Hardware acceleration Mixer, Tank Engine (effects), Filter Engine, DMA.
• Simultaneous development and interaction of hardware and software parts

A huge amount of information about the X-Fi processor can be found on a dedicated website.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Cards

On August 8, 2005 Creative announced a new line of Sound Blaster X-Fi sound cards based on the processor of the same name. Four card models will be released: Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro, Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS, Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum, Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic.

The Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro features a professional-quality 116dB S / N DAC plus an external interface module with 24-bit Crystalizer, X-Fi CMSS-3D, 3DMIDI and EAX control buttons. The card is equipped with 64 MB of on-board X-RAM sound memory, as well as microphone and guitar preamps. Estimated cost US $ 399.99.

The Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS is designed to meet the needs of famed gamer Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel. The card has 109 dB S / N, 64 MB onboard X-RAM. The set includes a switching block for a 5 "compartment and an IR remote control. PCI-card with lower quality DACs. Cost US $ 279.99.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS

Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum. Same as Fatal1ty, but PCI card without onboard memory. US $ 199.99

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic. The simplest board option. Platinum without breakout box. US $ 129.99
By the way, even for this card there is a mention of the possibility of ordering an IR receiver on the USB bus and a remote control.

In this article, we will look at the most interesting model - Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro. A distinctive feature of the card is the maximum quality and performance, plus a huge external switching unit with a remote control.

Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro

Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro

The card itself, labeled SB0550, has gold-plated connectors and a mysterious rectangular piece in the upper corner of the board. In fact, it turned out that this is an LED with the X-Fi inscription, which glows blue when turned on and will be clearly visible in translucent modder cases.

Sound Blaster X-Fi PCI Card (SB0550) included with Elite Pro

Indeed, the phonogram is remastered with the help of a "widely known in narrow circles" mastering plug-in called "multiband compressor". To be 100% convinced that I was right, I compared the work of the Crystalizer with three mastering multiband compressors: Waves LinMB, iZotope Ozone, Steinberg MultiBand Compressor. When these plugins are enabled, the sound character changes in the same way as when Crystalizer is enabled.

To be 200% sure, I tested the Crystalizer with our RMAA program and compared it with the results Waves LinMB Linear Phase MultiBand compressor(with standard preset Low-Level Enhancer - I inform for those who want to repeat measurements). Tests were conducted with the default Crystalizer setting, in the middle position.

Pay attention to the equalization of the frequency response and large intermodulation distortion - according to the measurements, the effect of the plug-ins is similar. However, the situation is much better by ear. This is due to the fact that the character of the musical signal differs from the test one. According to psychoacoustics, an overload of less than 6 ms by a person is not recorded, and a high-quality compressor does not allow prolonged overload, quickly reducing the signal level, which is regulated by the attack time.

There is an analogy for Crystalizer technology in the world of digital photography. Suppose a plug-in appears that converts a JPEG compressed from a certain high-quality TIF into 16-bit per color, then compresses the levels (roughly speaking, increases the brightness / contrast) and sharpness by 10-20%, depending on the source. Done! We get a new ingenious "48-bit Picturelizer" that makes JPEG better than the original TIF. Attention, the question: in which case the quality will be better? That's right, only if the JPEG has a quality margin for such abuse, and the display device has problems with transferring the lightest and darkest halftones of the original image.

In sound, the situation with MP3 and WAV is about the same, but there is also a difference. In mastering studios, very expensive equipment is used that analyzes the source file not in real time, but with some anticipation or even not in one pass, using the calculation accuracy not 24 bits, but 64 bits with floating point. Further, mastering compression parameters must be painstakingly tweaked individually for each recording on high-quality mid- and far-field control monitors. Trusting a similar function to a machine in real time and talking about superiority over studio results is presumptuous. In the final stage of mastering, the stage of forming a psychoacoustic distribution of dithering noise (noise shaping) takes place, which by ear turns a 16-bit recording into a 20-bit one, so that all that remains is to send the recording bit by bit to the input interface of the DACs. Any interference in this process has a detrimental effect on the quality, and the original phonogram cannot be surpassed from the MP3 recording in any way, and multiband compression can distort the tonal balance beyond recognition and lead to a redistribution of the signal energy, which will cause overload at high or low frequencies.

It's another matter if we are talking about mediocre household acoustics with a limited dynamic range and a flawed frequency response, so that even the most primitive tone control subjectively significantly increases the comfort of perception. In this case, the additional band-pass compression of high and low frequencies makes it easier to perceive the soundtrack through these specific speakers, especially in combination with a moderately compressed original soundtrack, with less aggressiveness (ratio of peak power to average value). In this case, the resulting distortion from processing will not surpass the distortion of the reproducing path.

This was the case in practice. On inexpensive active stereo speakers, some recordings subjectively sounded more intelligible, albeit with more aggression. On high-quality acoustics (studio monitors and mid-range Hi-Fi speakers), I easily found several MP3s, as well as original CDs, the quality of which Crystalizer significantly degraded, so that overload was heard, or the sound became too aggressive, which led to rapid fatigue from listening.

The measurements showed that in addition to the multiband signal compression, the level was raised by about 3 dB. So any quiet recordings will seem subjectively better even without the compressor.

Thus, the 24-bit Crystalizer will benefit the owners of inexpensive acoustics or budget headphones, which almost automatically means a lack of bass and treble, as well as problems with the detail of the midrange. For those with high-quality acoustics, the good news is that this technology is easily disabled.

24-bit Crystalizer technology has a right to life, but the presentation itself, with wishful thinking, is not at all happy. In reality, Crystalizer does not expand, but narrows the dynamic range, and 24 bits are really used, but only in order not to accumulate round-off error (this is a normal practice, no modern DSP works in the same resolution as the original data).

СMSS-3D

The CMSS-3D technology is designed to solve the main problem of the young generation of users of multichannel sound cards: "I have a 5.1 set of speakers. Everything is cool in movies, but only 2 front speakers play MP3! And I want everyone !!!"

As mentioned above, CMSS (Creative Multi Speaker Surround) technology has been updated to CMSS-3D. Developments and patents from IRCAM, UC Davis, Aureal, Sensaura and Creative's Advanced Technology Center are used.

CMSS-3D virtualizes a sound source of any channel to any device, thus providing:

• CMSS-3DHeadphone: surround sound in headphones;
• CMSS-3DVirtual: surround sound in stereo speakers;
• CMSS-3DSurround: converting stereo to multichannel sound;
• CMSS-3DInteractive: 3D sound from multiple sources.

Tested with Sennheiser HD600 headphones. The problem of double imposition of virtualization effects was identified, with a deterioration in the volumetric effect. The fact is that all musical recordings of recent years already contain, to one degree or another, an expansion of the stereo panorama, so the result may be unexpected.

At the same time, the demo file "The Rising of the Sun" from the CD "Essential Anuna", containing almost raw stereo, showed good results, and even superiority over DolbyHeadphones technology.

Besides music, CMSS-3D technology can also be used in games. In this case, the game calculates 3D sound for 5.1 speakers, and CMSS-3DHeadphone converts multi-channel audio to surround sound in headphones.

X-RAM

Unlike cards of the past decades, on-board X-Fi memory is used not for MIDI samples, but for storing or caching sounds while gaming applications are running. There is a problem with a shortage of RAM, so the developers either reduce the bit depth of the samples to 8 bits 11 kHz, which worsens the quality by an order of magnitude, or compress them into lossy formats, MP3 or OGG, which leads to a processor load when unpacking at the stage of playing the sample.

Thus, the introduction of on-board memory on a sound card allows: saving main memory, speeding up memory access, eliminating the need for real-time decompression, eliminating the loss of sample quality, increasing graphics performance and FPS.

Today there is only one game with full X-RAM support. This is UT2004 X-Fi Edition, which is not yet available to a wide audience. We suggest you review the results provided by Creative. As you can see, the introduction of X-RAM can increase performance by up to 20%, which is equivalent to an upgrade of a graphics accelerator, while also increasing the sound quality! An unambiguously useful innovation.

UT2004 X-Fi Edition

RMAA 5.5 tests

We can't resist publicly quoting Creative's guide for journalists testing X-Fi.

“As mentioned, Creative designed the Sound Blaster X-Fi family primarily with sound quality in mind. To achieve this, we took our testing very seriously. However, we realize that not all journalists have access to Audio Precision ", the industry standard for professional audio testing. We see that many people use" RightMark Audio Analyzer "for audio quality tests because of its affordability and nice interface. However, due to the difference in methodology between the two platforms, their results will be different. We have received some questions about these differences in the past, so we want to show you the prepared results and test methods for both Audio Precision and RMAA. We hope you find something useful in them. "

Creative's instructions for setting up X-Fi cards for measurement in RMAA can be downloaded from the official website.

Audio Precision Test Results

RMAA 5.5 test results

Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS

Comparing RMAA loopback vs. AP loopback, I would like to note that the discrepancy is a few percent, due to the difference in the calculation algorithms. In the latest version 5.5, the maximum compliance with existing international standards was observed (while the RMAA uses more accurate calculations than is required by the standard). Considering the kilo-dollar cost of Audio Precision and the free RMAA, we can fully recommend the program for checking the manufacturer's declared passport data. THD + N value should be taken from RMAA detailed report.

Of the tests, only distortion graphs are of interest.

THD card SB0550

IMD (DIN) cards SB0550

IMD (CCIF) from SB0550 frequency


IMD (CCIF) from SB0460 frequency

From the measurements, the problem with a lot of distortion is a thing of the past. The 44.1 kHz mode in X-Fi cards is no different from 48 kHz.

Hardware SRC Quality Test

It is interesting to compare the quality of the new hardware SRC X-Fi versus the popular real-time SSRC plug-in MP3-player WinAmp, which is of a fairly high quality and decently loads the CPU.

IMD (CCIF) vs. frequency

IMD (DIN)

Reference 16/44 - analysis of the source data file generated by the test; shows the maximum achievable quality for 16-bit format.
X-Fi HW SRC OFF - Disabling the hardware SRC of X-Fi is achieved by setting the 44.1 kHz reference mode and the Enable Bit-Matched Playback option.
X-Fi HW SRC ON - enabling hardware SRC in X-Fi is obtained by playing a 44.1 kHz file with the 48 kHz reference mode set and disabling Enable Bit-Matched Playback.

WinAmp SSRC plug-in - playing a 44.1 kHz file in WinAmp with the SSRC plug-in installed, configured to recalculate at 48 kHz, while the card has a 48 kHz reference mode and the Enable Bit-Matched Playback option.

As we can see, the SRC of the card is superior to the SSRC of the plugin, and there are no distortions visible from the diagram from its inclusion.

RightMark 3DSound

The diagram is deliberately built at a scale of 100% to show that the difference, even several times, with a small number of buffers is insignificant, and enabling EAX in 3D mode is almost free.

OpenAL API is ahead of DirectSound due to more direct access to hardware and optimization of the complete CT_OAL.DLL library (Creative OpenAL Driver, 5.12.1.1141) exclusively for X-Fi. The only exception is 2D mode. But, in this mode, OpenAL most likely will not be used, and the speed is not important there. Most likely OpenAL 2D is 3D with fixed coordinates. The download is the same:

Games

As mentioned, Creative had the opportunity to test X-Fi on a special UT2004 version with 128 voices. I can't help but give the results:

• Realtek HD Audio: 7.1 Audio, EAX 2.0, 32 Voices
• Sound Blaster Live !: 5.1 Audio, EAX 2.0, 32 Voices
• Sound Blaster Audigy: 7.1 Audio. EAX 3.0, 32 & 64 Voices, CMSS-3D
• Sound Blaster X-Fi: 7.1 Audio, EAX 3.0, 32, 64 & 128 Voices, X-Fi CMSS-3D, X-Fi 24-bit Crystalizer

So, in UT2004 the difference between HDAudio and X-Fi at 32 voices reaches 17%, with better sound quality and CMSS-3D and 24-bit Crystalizer enabled. The configuration of the computer is quite average: P4-3.4, 1 GB, GeForce 6600.

From real games, direct support for X-Fi is so far only in Battlefield2 (even in the demo version!), Implemented through OpenAL. If you have a card, you can select a separate item Creative X-Fi, EAX and Ultra High sound settings in the sound options. In this case, the on-board memory is used to cache samples and speed up sound processing. I must say that the samples in this game are mostly of average quality, many 22 kHz, plus they are compressed in OGG with a variable bit rate of 100 kbps. So with the X-Fi option selected and EAX activated, the sound deserves a "Very Good" rating, but not "Excellent" due to the disgusting quality of the samples. The sound is much more interesting in Doom3 with patch 1.3, which includes EAX4.

We took our measurements in Battlefield2 using a hacker mod. The system used was P4 3.4 GHz, 1 GB DDR400, ATI X800, graphics settings 800 × 600, Medium. Creative X-Fi + EAX ON + Ultra High mode gave 52 FPS, compared to Hardware + EAX OFF + Medium mode, which shows 55 FPS. Thus, the difference in performance between the modes with maximum and medium settings does not exceed 5%, for which I must say thanks to the fast and powerful processor of the card. And this is with such video settings, when the performance is not yet limited by the video card. In game resolutions, you can safely set the sound to maximum.

Based on the results of testing a real product for a new processor
Creative X-Fi the award is given website Original Design

To be continued…

The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD external sound card is designed to dramatically improve sound quality with a host of benefits. The device can be easily connected to a laptop or PC, while it is equipped with conveniently located connectors for microphone and playback devices. It is worth immediately mentioning the sound amplification function and the ability to easily adjust the volume of the outgoing audio stream. The rear panel of the sound card is equipped with an optical port, a gold-plated stereo RCA connector, and an integrated phono stage that allows you to directly record the sound played from your vinyl record.

The device fully supports the special software Media Toolbox 6, which has a convenient intuitive interface and allows you to easily record digital sound, as well as convert it to various audio formats. With SBX Pro Studio technology, you can play video or audio files with a “live sound” effect, for example, when watching a movie or listening to music.

Superior sound quality
One of the main advantages of this model of the Sound Blaster USB sound card is the ability to reproduce sound in superior quality. At the same time, the signal-to-noise ratio is 114 dB.

SBX Pro Studio technology
The Sound Blaster X-Fi HD features SBX Pro Studio technology, which dramatically improves sound quality when playing games, watching movies or listening to music.

A great choice for vinyl fans!
In addition to all the other benefits, the sound card is equipped with a phono stage with RIAA equalizer, which allows you to easily connect a turntable to it and thus directly convert the sound to CD or MP3 formats.

Audio amplifier in your headset
The Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD also includes a premium integrated audio amplifier that works great even when paired with premium headphones, where impedance can be as high as 330 ohms.

Fast and easy connection
Among other advantages of the device, it is worth highlighting the presence of conveniently located audio jacks for headphones and a microphone with a gold-plated frame. In addition, the device is equipped with a separate volume control in the form of a special toggle switch located on the front panel of the sound card.

Fully compatible with Windows 8
The developers of the audio card have done a great job not only on the hardware, but also on the software component of their brainchild. This allows the Sound Blaster X-Fi HD audio drivers to work perfectly even when paired with Windows 8.

Technical indicators

Basic:
- Sound technology: X-Fi.
- Signal to noise ratio: 114 dB.
- Channel output: stereo.
- Used audio technology: SBX Pro Studio.
- Sound quality: 24 bit / 96 kHz.
- Main port for connection: USB 2.0.
- Warranty period: 1 year.

Connection:
- Optical output TOSLINK.
- Optical TOSLINK input.
- One 1/4 "mic input that is fully RIAA compliant.
- Two line RCA inputs.
- Headphone out 1/4 ".
- Two line RCA outputs.

List of compatible OS:
Windows8, WindowsXP SP2 or more, Windows Vista SP1 or more, Windows7 and Windows10.

System Requirements:
- Compatible OS: Microsoft Windows10, Windows8, Windows7, Windows Vista, Windows XP (Professional x64 Edition, Service Pack 2 or more).
- Intel Core2 Duo or AMD equivalent processor with a recommended clock speed of 2.2 GHz or higher.
- Availability of a free USB port.
- Minimum RAM: 1 GB.
- Free space on hard disk: 600 MB.
- Headphones or amplified speakers.
- CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive for software installation.
- Availability of an Internet connection.

Equipment:
- Sound Blaster X-Fi HD sound card.
- Guide for quick connection and software installation.
- User manual.
- Adapter-adapter with RCA connectors and audio input connector.
- USB cable 1.5 m long.
- Installation CD-ROM.
- CD with Media Toolbox 6.